Mechanical arm is an automated machine with the abilities including the planning ability, motion ability and coordination ability similar to those of human beings and living organisms, and thus the mechanical arm is a highly elastic automated machine. At present, the technology of mechanical arms is developed rapidly and applied extensively in different areas, and the structure of the mechanical arms is experiencing a big change. Basically, the mechanical arm can be divided into two main types, respectively: an industrial mechanical arm used in manufacturing environments, and a mechanical arm used in non-manufacturing environments. The so-called industrial mechanical arm used in the manufacturing environments refers to a multi-joint mechanical arm or a multiple degree-of-freedom mechanical arm. The mechanical arm used in the non-manufacturing environments refers to any mechanical arm other than the industrial mechanical arm and it includes a service mechanical arm, an underwater mechanical arm, an entertaining mechanical arm, a military mechanical arm, an agricultural mechanical arm, a cleaning mechanical arm, etc.
Most of the present simulating robotic arms come with an elasticity adjusting function and a drive controlling function. The robotic arms can use the elasticity adjusting function to adjust the elastic resilience of the mechanical arm for its interactions with human beings and improve the user's safety during the use of the mechanical arm. When it is necessary to use the mechanical arm for a positioning operation, the elastic resilience can be adjusted again to achieve a precise positioning operation of the mechanical arm. However, most of the present simulating mechanical arms adjust the elasticity and drive the operation of the arms by using a plurality of actuation units. When the arm is driven to move, some of the actuation units are used, but the remaining actuation units are idle, thus failing to utilize the actuation units effectively and causing unnecessary waste of cost.
In view of the aforementioned problems of the conventional actuation system, the inventor of the present invention developed an actuation system that combines two transmission modules with two nonlinear elastic elements to overcome the problems of the prior art and improve the industrial application.